By Casey Chaffin

HereTogether Communications Associate 

An orange cat roamed the city of Portland, searching for food and a cozy bed, because he didn’t have a home.

That’s the opening line of Toby Finds a Home, an independently-published children’s book, written by the staff at Blanchet House. 

The book follows Toby, a friendly and curious cat, from his life as a stray, to the dining hall of Blanchet House, all the way to a new home. 

This project was born out of the pandemic – when homelessness on the streets became more prominent than ever, and people, stuck at home, sought out ways to get involved from afar. 

The staff at Blanchet House wanted to channel this energy into community engagement with their mission. The homeless day shelter and transitional residential program in Old Town Portland serves three meals a day, six days a week, and distributes clothing and other supplies to low income and unhoused people in the area. 

 Right: Eva Wrzesinski, illustrator, and Julie Showers, Blanchet House co-writer, read Toby Finds a Home to a gathering of parents and kids at Green Bean Books on September 8.

‘Everyone’s Story is Different’

“Our mission at Blanchet is to alleviate suffering and restore dignity. One of the ways we’ve learned that we can help carry out that mission is to educate the public and humanize the people we serve,” Julie Showers, Blanchet House communications director, said. 

Showers co-wrote the book with her mother, Marie, who taught elementary school for over 30 years. The sensibilities of an elementary school teacher are baked into the book – a cute, wide-eyed animal carries the narrative arc of the book, teaching children that caring for each other is how we can make a difference in the community. 

Blanchet House creates spaces where we can discover our shared humanity and common experiences, regardless of housing status. Blanchet House’s mission – to alleviate suffering and restore dignity – shines a softer, gentler light on homelessness. Unhoused people are people – and they’re not a monolith. 

“We want to show all the different kinds of people that eat [at Blanchet House],” Showers said. “Everyone’s story is so different. You can’t just generalize the population of people that are in need of support through food and clothing services.” 

From low-income seniors looking for connection, to chronically homeless individuals with disabilities, to families and children, Blanchet House opens their doors to anyone who feels they could find what they need there – whether that’s a warm meal, a change of clothes, or human interaction.

‘It Doesn’t Matter If You’re Unhoused – You Still Have an Identity’

Eva Wrzesinski, a Pacific Northwest College of Art graduate, illustrated the book and brought Toby and his Blanchet House friends to life. 

“We want children to be connecting to these people as people,” they said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re unhoused – you still have an identity. You still have interests and wants and hopes and dreams and that’s important for kids to be able to connect to.”

Each character in Toby Finds a Home has their own backstory – an older man who lost his job and now lives in a tent, a former foster youth who lives in her car – and a thoughtfully illustrated face. The question that the reader is left with isn’t “Will Toby find a home?”, it’s, “Who are the folks on the street who we drive past on our way to school every morning?”

As a lifelong Oregonian, and a Portland resident for the past six years, Wrzesinski has witnessed the need for accessible narratives to teach children about social issues. 

“That’s why we have children’s TV, children’s books – it’s all of these characters to represent something that’s maybe a little bit bigger than them,” Wrzesinski said. “But it can be pared down into something that is a little easier to comprehend and carry with them into their adulthood, when they are forming more of their own opinions and thoughts and beliefs.”

Heidi Janowski, Blanchet House community engagement manager, helps kids make care kits to hand out to Blanchet House guests.

Helping Children Become Empathetic and Engaged Adults

This book serves as a bridge, inviting the community, especially children, to engage with Blanchet House’s mission. Heidi Janowski, Blanchet House’s community engagement manager, is in charge of bringing the book out into the community – to schools and libraries and bookstores. She hopes to meet children where they are and to facilitate discussions with young people about homelessness. 

Janowski was an elementary school teacher for over 15 years. She said that making discussions about social issues accessible to children is really important to the long-term wellbeing of our community, “because children are going to become adults.”

Narratives like Toby Finds A Home are about “starting to build that consciousness and empowering people – helping them understand that you can actually do something, you can be engaged, you can be part of this community,” she said.

Alongside the book, Blanchet House created a teacher’s discussion guide that offers guiding questions – “Have you seen a person sleeping on the sidewalk in a tent or park bench? How did that make you feel after reading this book?”– and connects the book to state academic standards. 

And children who become engaged with the issue of homelessness through Toby’s story have opportunities to get involved with Blanchet House. The organization also developed a guide for parents called Fostering Compassion that outlines age-appropriate ways for kids to volunteer – ranging from assembling care kits and sack lunches at home for younger kids, to serving meals and sorting donations on-site at Blanchet House for kids ages 14 and older.

“There just seems to be such a [desire] from families to find ways to help, because they’re seeing people suffering,” Showers said. “They’re seeing the homeless crisis, and they don’t want to just step over someone. So we try to develop all kinds of opportunities for them.”

‘It’s Important for Everybody to Do Their Part’

While the political conversations around homelessness policy make the issue seem complicated and insurmountable, the takeaway of a children’s book is simple and actionable. 

“With the importance of community and helping each other, there can be success stories. People can get housed. People can work jobs, people can get clean. It’s something that has got to happen. Involvement has to happen. Even if you’re an eight year old,” Wrzesinski said.“It’s our community and it’s really important for absolutely everybody to do their part.”

Toby Finds a Home can be ordered online on Blanchet House’s website. Downloads of their free educational materials for children are available online as well.

If you or someone you know is interested in hosting a reading of Toby Finds a Home or stocking the book at your bookstore, reach out to jshowers@blanchethouse.org.

Illustrator Eva Wrzesinski poses with the book at Green Bean Books, where it will be sold.